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Thursday, 21 November 2013

The last couple of weeks have been
dominated by discussions of gender-based violence. So much so that
most people I know are completely drained from many painful,
triggering conversations. I'd like to change the subject to something
less depressing, but yesterday was Transgender Day of Rememberance,
so once again I've got gender-based violence on my mind.

According to TvT Research Project, 238
trans people were murdered between November 20 2012 and November 1
2013. This is a conservative estimate, since these are only the
people we know about.

I can't help thinking that this list
isn't even the half of it. Not all transphobic violence is as visible
and overt as a gun to someone's head. The most pervasive kind of
violence is the one that's so common it's invisible. Structural
transphobia kills people too. There are people who died because they
didn't have access to adequate healthcare. There are people who live
in poverty because employers and social services discriminate against
trans people. People who don't have anywhere to live because
landlords discriminate against trans people. Kids whose families
won't have anything to do with them because their families are
transphobic. Then there are all the trans sex workers who have to
deal with anti-sex worker violence and state control too. Trans women,
especially trans women of colour, are disproportionately the ones most
affected by structural transphobia.

It's not just structural transphobia that's
the problem, it's also all those tiny moments in everyday life when
cis people choose not to challenge transphobia. Just like rape is
enabled by a rape culture that ridicules the victims and minimises
their pain, transphobia is enabled by a gendernormative culture that
ridicules anyone who transgresses gender norms and minimises violence
against them. When you don't challenge transphobic jokes, or correct
people who intentionally misgender trans folk, you're sending a
message to transphobic cis people that you think their bigotry is ok.
Even worse, you're also sending a message to trans people that you
think bigotry against them is ok. We need to fight transphobia at a
structural level, but it's equally important to fight it at a
personal level.

In Hebrew when we speak of the dead we
say עליהם השלום – peace unto
them. There's nothing more we can for the 238 people who were
murdered for being trans, aside from hope that they are at peace now.
But we can fight for a world where no one is subjected to violence
because of their gender identity. As Mother Jones would say 'pray for
the dead, fight like hell for the living'.